1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the production and distribution of movies, and more particularly, to a method of pre-selling movies to end users of the movies prior to the actual production thereof.
2. Statement of the Problem
There are presently several-problems related to the production of feature length movies, including high production costs, high investment risk, and a high instance of financial failure. Revenues generated from a movie""s distribution are often much less than the cost of production. The high cost of producing and distributing feature length movies continues to escalate each year. These ever increasing costs create a commensurate increase in risk for movie investors. A significant percentage of box office failures is largely due to the inability of movie producers to accurately predict the number of tickets that will be purchased. Although various market surveys are presently performed by the movie industry, movie producers have been unable to use these methods to determine what the exact size of the audience for a specific movie will be, and consequently cannot determine whether the number of tickets sold will pay for the cost of production of the movie. Thus, only a small percentage of movies are now profitable.
Furthermore, even in cases where particular movies turn out to be profitable on paper, filmmakers and film investors are often unable to collect their profit share from the distributors of their movies. Distributors of feature films often use xe2x80x9ccreative accountingxe2x80x9d methods for reporting the profits of a movie. Furthermore, the filmmakers and film investors have little or no control over expenses charged against the movie by the distributors. In many instances, a movie""s distributor makes a considerable profit, but after the distributor""s xe2x80x9cexpensesxe2x80x9d are deducted, the filmmakers and investors do not.
Another significant problem for all filmmakers is xe2x80x9ccreative meddlingxe2x80x9d by a studio or distributor. In order to secure financing for their movie, filmmakers are often forced to accept choices for creative elements in a film that prove to be undesirable to the audience. For example, a studio may require a filmmaker to use a certain star in the film, because that star is under contract to the studio or that star can get them greater foreign sales guarantees, and not because that star would best serve the story. Significant creative choices in the making of a movie are often made arbitrarily, by a single individual, without input from the potential audience. To date, there has never been an accurate method for determining if these creative choices in the making of a film are those most desired by the audience.
Since presently known methods of surveying the audience cannot determine, in and of themselves, exactly how many tickets will be purchased for a particular movie, a method is needed for assuring the financial success of a movie, in advance of the movie""s production. In addition, a method is needed to insure a movie""s critical success by keeping creative choices made by the filmmakers in line with those of the intended audience.
The present invention overcomes the aforementioned problems of the prior art and achieves an advance in the field by providing a method for funding the production of a movie by presenting a storyboard synopsis of the movie on a production company""s Internet Web site, and allowing interested potential viewers of the movie to purchase a share of the production company""s stock prior to production of the movie. The purchase of a share of stock provides the shareholder the right to obtain a free copy of the movie, when completed, as a dividend.
In an effort to secure financing for a movie, xe2x80x9cStoryboard synopsesxe2x80x9d (realistically drawn, sequential series of drawings depicting the action of the story, running concurrently with a narrative description) and xe2x80x9cTrailersxe2x80x9d (edited sequences filmed from the screenplay that summarize the story) have been shown to potential investors prior to completion of a movie, but never to end user viewers. End user viewers have not heretofore been shown storyboard synopses as a means of securing their investment, because prior to the advent of the Internet, there has never been a cost-effective way to expose an audience to a movie""s story line, and then advertise for, and transact, enough individual stock sales to pay for the movie""s production costs.
Traditionally, movie producers do not reveal a movie""s complete story line and other significant elements thereof in advance of distribution. High risk exists from the producers standpoint because the ultimate audience has no input into the creation of the product, and therefore, the movie content, the specific actors participating in the movie, and the directing thereof, may not be suitable to a sufficiently large number of potential viewers to make the movie profitable. The method of the present invention exposes a movie""s ultimate audience to its story line and adapts the story line according to input received from them. In addition, the present method also allows the participants to help determine other aspects of the movie, such as casting, the final story line, selection of the filming location, and the shooting schedule.
In accordance with the present invention, a storyboard synopsis of an unproduced (i.e., uncompleted) movie is first displayed to a potential end user viewer thereof via the Internet Web site of a movie production company. Accompanying the storyboard synopsis is an offer which includes an opportunity to participate in the making of the movie by xe2x80x98votingxe2x80x99 for certain options related to the movie""s production, as well as the opportunity to view the production of the movie via live video transmission over the Internet. A potential viewer who decides to participate in the offer then purchases a share of stock in the production company, which entitles the purchaser to receive, in addition to the above opportunities, a free copy of the movie (when completed) as a dividend. The stock purchase is effected preferably by an electronics fund transfer, such as by the entering of a credit card number via the Web site.
The participants in the offer, who, in part, comprise the ultimate audience, use the storyboard synopsis to determine whether to make a purchase of the movie in advance of production. The participants who decide to purchase the stock, and thereby a copy of the movie, become the end users of a product they themselves help create. Production of the movie is not commenced until the number of xe2x80x98ticketsxe2x80x99 (i.e., shares of stock in the production company) sold is sufficient to cover the cost of making the movie.
The financial success of the movie is therefore essentially guaranteed because a section of the ultimate movie audience assures that sufficient funding is available to produce the movie by purchasing stock, and thereby copies of the movie prior to production. Upon completion of the movie and delivery to shareholders, the movie""s cost of production is paid for, and any future revenues received from screening the movie in worldwide markets are therefore, essentially, gross profit.
The present invention thus provides a method for allowing a filmmaker to maintain financial control of a movie, while eliminating all financial risk from the standpoint of the movie studio investor. Traditionally, a movie studio (xe2x80x98studioxe2x80x99) provides xe2x80x98front moneyxe2x80x99 for the production and distribution expenses of a typical movie. According to one aspect of the present method, a studio and/or a movie distributor (xe2x80x98studio/distributorxe2x80x99) invests in a filmmaker""s project (i.e., an unproduced movie) by buying stock in the filmmaker""s production company. The studio/distributor buys stock in a production which is essentially pre-sold, and therefore owns stock in a project which is already into a profitable phase. If the completed movie is a xe2x80x98hitxe2x80x99, then the production company""s stock price would appreciate significantly, thus producing greater profits for the movie studio investor than those derived solely from the usual rentals of a given movie. Furthermore, as described above, a film that does not acquire xe2x80x98hitxe2x80x99 status would still be profitable, because it had already been pre-sold prior to its production.
The purchase of production company stock by studios and distributors is in addition to the purchase of stock by individuals, who may purchase the stock primarily to observe the production of a movie, and to receive a copy of the movie when it is completed. A distributor, such as a video movie rental store chain, may purchase stock primarily for the purpose of acquiring copies of the movie for rental or resale to home viewers, since a free copy of the movie is (ultimately) provided with each share of stock purchased.
An additional advantage provided by the present method is the ability of the production company to maintain control over the creative elements of a movie by retaining the right to decide ultimately which aspects of the movie are tailored in accordance with the options selected by the voting participants. Even though a studio/distributor investor (which may own many thousands of shares of stock) might cast their large voting share for certain options, the individual (public) participants, who collectively control more shares than the studio/distributor, may decide that they want options different from those chosen by the studio/distributor (e.g., different actors). The present method allows the production company to be the ultimate arbiter of which options are to be employed in the actual production of the movie.